


Take Me Instead

by icewhisper



Series: Holiday Cheer & Tears [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 16:59:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16814752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: The Oculus hadn’t liked him. It had respected him on some level with the way he’d taken Mick’s place and stuck it to the Time Masters, but it didn’t like him. He was a thief. He hurt people.He wasn’t the right one.





	Take Me Instead

The Oculus hadn’t liked him. It had respected him on some level with the way he’d taken Mick’s place and stuck it to the Time Masters, but it didn’t like him. He was a thief. He hurt people.

He wasn’t the right one.

The power surged and flared and _stopped_. He’d been expecting pain, but there was blue that burned his eyes and turned into the swirling greens he knew was the timestream. Colors and a bone-deep knowledge that something was wrong. _He_ was wrong.

He wasn’t the right one.

He wasn’t the right one and the Oculus wouldn’t tell him who was, but he knew. The same way he’d always known how much time they had left on a job. The same way he’d known that Mick was important that first day as he stared up at him through a pair of swollen eyes.

The Oculus wanted Mick.

Len wanted to fight it; wanted to argue and demand that the Oculus take him instead, but time wants what it wants. He’d heard _time wants to happen_ so many times since he’d stepped onto the Waverider that it haunted his dreams. The Oculus wanted Mick even more than it didn’t want him and Mick…

The blue flames didn’t call to him, but Mick had been dreaming of them since they were fourteen.

“I’m not letting you kill him,” he told the empty space around him, voice trembling in something that was as much anger as fear.

It didn’t respond to him. There was no mystical voice in his head or echoing around the nothingness. No images flashed across the fading blue. He thought he felt something deep in his gut; some feeling that the Oculus didn’t _want_ to hurt Mick, but there wasn’t time. There was no time to think about it. The timestream was winning out or the Oculus was giving him back and Len wasn’t sure which, but he knew he didn’t want to go.

“He’s not dying for this,” he snapped and wished he could dig his heels in to make himself stay put. He didn’t care what plans the Oculus had for Mick. It had _him_. Let him die. He’d been living on borrowed time since they were fourteen and Mick jumped into a fight he’d had no reason to get involved in.

They never should have gone on this stupid mission, he thought when the blue blinked out of existence and he started to fall. He’d give up all the damn trinkets they’d picked up if it meant keeping Mick far away from this. He couldn’t lose him to this. He _couldn’t_.

But he fell.

He fell and he screamed and-

“Len!”

He woke up to Mick’s hands firm on his shoulders and blankets tangled around his legs.

“Len, what the fuck-”

“Off,” Len gasped. “Get off.”

Mick moved away from him in a second, hands held up in front of him. “No hands,” he agreed. “Gonna get out and grab you some water, alright? You look like you’re gonna pass out.”

Len didn’t chance nodding, but he felt the mattress shift as Mick slipped out of bed. The Waverider. Their quarters. Stolen knickknacks were displayed on shelves, because Len liked watching Rip’s eyebrow twitch in irritation and know he couldn’t call them out on it without admitting his own hypocrisy.

“Gonna put the glass in your hand, okay? You got it or do you need me to hold it?”

“Got it,” Len murmured, but some still ended up spilled across his lap. His hands were shaking. Two hands. The right one was still his, not the regenerated one Gideon had done that had felt like his but didn’t look like his at all. Scars still marred his skin, cigarette burns and part of a scar Mick didn’t like talking about.

Len thought he might throw up.

“My hand…”

Mick frowned. “What about it?”

Len opened his mouth to tell him it was wrong – that his hand hadn’t been his hand in weeks – but the words got stuck in his throat. Wrong. He was wrong, he remembered. The Oculus and the blue that was too bright. He flinched at nothing Mick could see and thought he could feel his partner’s worry grow.

“I’m fine,” he lied. He reached out to Mick with a hand that wanted to recoil, because his skin was crawling and touch wasn’t okay, but Mick looked scared.

Mick shook his head and sat down on the edge of the bed where he wouldn’t touch Len. “You’re freaking out,” he said, because he knew Len too well to fall for his games and Mick only touched Len when it was okay or when he had to. “Told you this place was a bad idea. We should go home.”

He wanted to say yes. _Fuck_ , he wanted to say yes. Let them grab the jump ship and get the hell out before things had a chance to go from bad to worse, because he knew where they were – _when_ they were. So close to 2046 and Mick beginning his spiral. It was another trip towards mistakes and pain that Len didn’t want to relive again. If he had to leave Mick in those woods again, he might shoot himself rather than step foot back onto the ship alone.

He couldn’t do it again.

He opened his mouth to agree, to tell Mick that, yes, they should go home fucking _yesterday_ , because it was a time ship and they probably could.

He never got the chance.

He watched everything play out like a bad movie he’d already seen and he couldn’t stop it. He thought he might manage it once as he told Sara how he’d met Mick. He’d opened his mouth to say something was wrong – that _he_ was wrong – but the words stuck in his throat. He should have told Mick before, he thought, back when Mick was angry but contained in their room. He should have told him what was happening.

He should have told _someone_ , but by the time he thought he could get the words out, Mick had sided with the pirates and it was too late. _He_ was too late. He couldn’t stop it. What happened had to happen and-

They left him to take care of it after – to take care of _Mick_ – and he took a step towards Rip’s desk instead of for his gun.

The Wellspring wasn’t the place he was supposed to replace him, Len realized as he dragged Mick into the holding cell down below with a note and a kiss pressed to his temple.

_Give them a chance. It’ll be okay._

(By the time Mick woke up to it – by the time anyone even realized Len had left him there and gone into the woods alone – it was too late.)

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure to check out the actual series page if you wanna see the whole Bingo card and know what kind of pain is coming your way. ♥


End file.
